Well the more expensive wands are probably being snapped up by collectors, but because they are custom wands you can get them made to your specs, including having stainless steel tips if you like to bang cups around. I've also seen them made in exotic hardwoods that look absolutely beautiful.

As for me, I've never been hard on the wands I use so it's kind of a non-issue in my case.

Gr8gorilla - What in the "religious counterparts" to magical performers would be analagous to wands in the middle ages? That part confuses me. It is clear from a lot of early pictures that conjurors did use wands (there's one in the hand on the front page of Hocus Pocus Jr, for example, though plenty of earlier pictures do exist). However, I am rather uncertain about the idea that these wands imitate anything from a religious context in medieval european culture. I'm not aware of any tradition in the Catholic Church of using a wand, for example.

That said, none of those wands appear to have an obvious separation between body and tips on the wand. They look like straight sticks to me.

I think the important thing in a wand is that it suits your hand and your style of use. I like the plain wood wands I've turned because they suit me. I've played with heavier wands with metal tips, but I like the plain wood. It is also less assuming.

Instead of looking for what be put into a wand (look at some older magic books for ideas, by the way), ask what you personally want to do and if the wand is the right way to do it. Then figure a gimmick for it. There are wands that produce coins, vanish silks, rise in the hand, and so on. I think the challenge is to get away from the inclination of the audience to say "hey, lemme see dat wand!"

Above all, keep having fun with your magic.

-Patrick